High Crimes and Dirty Tricks
When people think of Nixon scandals, they naturally think of Watergate. But the mushrooming case of Joseph Wilson and his CIA-agent wife reminds me more of the matter of Daniel Ellsberg. Ellsberg was a senior Pentagon analyst who produced a detailed study on the history of US involvement in Vietnam, and later leaked it to the New York Times as the famous "Pentagon Papers." Enraged, Nixon's political team burgled the offices of Ellsberg's psychologist in an effort to find information that could discredit and embarrass Ellsberg, and punish him for releasing actual facts that undermined Nixon’s lies about the situation in Vietnam.
Commenter Matthew DeLuca is right that it’s premature to assume that this incident will become a “cancer at the heart of the Presidency” as Watergate was. Certainly the crime of using government power against a private citizen for political purposes is the same. But the difference here is that Bush has the opportunity to do what Nixon did not: cut out the rot before it spreads, and refuse to protect criminals inside his Administration even though they were acting on his behalf.
The problem is, there is already speculation on the part of the public as to the identities of the two “senior White House officials” who unambiguously broke the law in this matter. There is also apparently a source inside the White House who has confirmed and clarified the story to the Washington Post. If someone like Karl Rove and/or Condi Rice was involved in the press briefing that blew Palme’s cover, then the surgery to remove the “cancer” – throwing over the top political strategist and the top national security strategist – may be almost as harmful to the prospects of the Administration as a protracted scandal of cover-ups and denials.
Apparently the unflappable Dr. Rice was a quivering nervous wreck on her appearances on Fox and Meet the Press this morning. If she has anything personally to do with this matter, she has reason to worry. We are past the point of denials now. It is beyond dispute that a CIA asset was compromised when Novak disclosed classified material in his July 14 column. Novak himself maintains that he got the information from Administration sources. It’s too late to try to blame the CIA, Wilson and his wife, or Novak himself, because too many people have already gone on record as saying that the briefing took place, and that “Senior White House officials” were involved. This is not just an ethical violation. It is clearly against the law, and the CIA has shown no sense of humor in its desire to see the perpetrators punished.
Furthermore, at least six reporters and an independent source inside the White House know who gave the briefing. Without a doubt, the President also knows, or could find out. There is no plausible reason why the White House should not disclose their identities immediately and demand their resignations. Any delay or equivocation in this regard invites charges of a cover-up, and any further assistance given to the perpetrators in evading justice potentially makes the White House party to a criminal conspiracy.
Currently there is no evidence to suggest that the President himself had anything to do with this. Mr. Bush deserves the presumption of innocence (as well as ignorance, which he is always entitled to), but he needs to be immediately and clearly forthcoming about what happened, who did it, why and what the consequences will be. Given the President’s temperamental difficulties with facing up to errors and the culture of loyalty pervading this White House, there are grounds to suspect things will get worse before they get better.
There remains an opportunity for the system to work here. It will be interesting to see if President Bush will be willing to pay the high price to ensure that the law is upheld and national security concerns take precedence over political dirty tricks.
Update:
New MSNBC post updating the story here.
Fellow Salon Bloggers Rayne, Different Strings and the Agora have initiated Project Frog March to keep this meme building momentum until we get some answers.
1:23:38 PM 
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